107 A SIMPLE 3-RIVERS RACE SPOTTERS’ GUIDE

The Three Rivers Race – www.3rr.uk – is organised by Horning Club and is a true 24-hour race encompassing rivers and bridges, tree-lined banks and open broads, day and night times. Entry is restricted to exclude mutlihulls, single-handers and craft under 12’ loa or over 40’ loa; hence the following spotters’ guide. There are many Classes of boat which follow One-Design rules and often represent a fairly well-defined envelope of build-years, and then there is probably the largest Class which is the River Cruisers represented by a multitude of individualistic designs and ages covering over 130-years of build and design.

Thames A Raters The Thames A Class Rater is both a historic and modern specialist sailing craft designed for the particular conditions at Thames Sailing Club, on the River Thames at Surbiton – a Victorian gentleman’s developed early last century specifically for river racing. Some are nearly a hundred years old, but even now, the 27 ft. long Raters, with their 45 ft. masts and large sail areas are still the fastest boats on the river, offering exciting sailing for their three-person crews.

Norfolk Punts The Norfolk Punt is a type of yacht, derived from the flat-bottomed gun boat of the mid-to-late 19th century. However, at the turn of the 20th Century, in order to get to and from the hunting grounds more efficiently, the punters developed their highly unstable craft to carry a basic mast and sail for travelling with the wind. It is from these humble beginnings that one of the country’s most exciting and powerful racing classes was born. The class has developed from this and now boasts hull lengths from 19 to 22 ft. (5.8 to 6.7 m) and a diverse range of construction materials. Rig configurations also vary, from aluminium to carbon spars, single or twin trapezes and symmetric or asymmetric spinnakers.

Wayfarers The is a wooden or fibreglass hulled fractional Bermuda rigged sailing dinghy of great versatility. From the original wooden design by Ian Proctor in 1957 many subsequent versions of the Wayfarer have been produced. The boat is 15 feet 10 inches (4.82 m) long, and broad and deep enough for three adults to comfortably sail for several hours.

Broads One-Design (BOD or Brown Boat) The BOD (Broads One-Design) was designed by Linton Hope in the early 1900s and is still sailed to this very day in different countries across the world. The BOD is often commonly known as a Brown Boat due to the first having varnished hulls. Although there are still some original wooden BODs sailing to this day, most are now built using fibreglass hulls, however all are true to the original design to allow for competitive sailing. Although there are many BODs located around the world, the largest fleets are located in East Anglia with racing held at NBYC, WOBYC and RN&SYC.

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Norfolk The first of a new class – Norfolk One-Design – was built in 1931 by Mr Herbert Woods of Potter Heigham as a protest against the price of the 14ft International Class which was soaring to 150 guineas. There were 86 Norfolk Dinghies built by Herbert Woods from 1931 until the last one in 1968 and a large proportion still sail regularly. The “B” on the sail is confusing until one remembers that the 12 foot Nationals, which were sailed frequently on these waters inter-war, display the letter “N”. Therefore “B” for Broads was chosen.

X1 Dinghies The X1 is a fast, light-weight sailing dinghy designed for sailing on rivers, estuaries and inland waters by Phil Morrison. The dinghy is sailed by 2/3 people and has a main, jib and a symmetric spinnaker, designed to be easily driven in very light wind, easy to sail and rig and quick to tack. The X1 name arose from being allocated the number X1 for the Three Rivers Race in 2009 as the class was then unnamed and had no sail number.

Yare & Bure One-Design (YBOD or White Boat) The first Yare and Bure One-Design was built in 1908 and has remained one of the most popular keelboat classes in East Anglia for over 100 years. One of the Broads’ most prolific designers of the twentieth century was Ernest Woods of Cantley (and later Horning), who was the creator of the Yare and Bure. It resulted from a competition to establish a One-Design Class held by the Yare and Bure Sailing Club. Over 140 YBODs have been built to date.

Yeomans The first Yeoman was designed in 1968 by Leslie Landamore and Ernest Yeomans to provide an alternative to the Yare & Bure, which would reflect developments in sailing technology of the time. They are Bermudan rigged, built in GRP and 20’ long. They have developed into a large fleet of two-man keelboats which are known for their affordability, ease of maintenance and competitiveness as well as their large spinnakers. There are over 200 Yeomans nationwide and around 50 lifting-keel Kinsman versions.

Rebels The Rebel One-Design is a Gunter rigged, carvel built, 22’9” keelboat designed specifically for sailing on the northern Broads, particularly in the Horning area, having a rig tall enough to access wind over the trees. Most Rebels are based at Horning SC. Recently the class has been developed to be built using a GRP hull.

Reedlings The Reedling is a 19’ fractional rigged keelboat designed and built by Reedling Yachts Ltd Horning, with the first one launched in 1963. Like the Rebel, they are mostly based at Horning SC. There were a total of 11 Reedlings built. Reedlings are known for their high performance, particularly when sailing on the rivers around Horning. Reedlings have won the Three Rivers Race. 109

Merlin Rockets The was designed in 1946 by Jack Holt as a 14’ -hulled performance dinghy. They used to be very popular with Snowflake SC, the Winter Club based at Horning, and remain amongst the fastest small dinghies around thanks to development within the fleet. Watch out for the triangle on the sail. The Three Rivers Race has been won by a Merlin Rocket, when the boat was able to make better progress against the tide to make up time on handicap on the Punts and A Raters in front of it.

Martham Hire Fleet The Martham hire fleet is based at Martham Boats and consists of several half deckers and River Cruisers. They comprise the majority of the craft available to hire for entry into the Three Rivers Race. The half deckers are based on the Yare & Bure design with some modifications, whilst the River Cruisers were all within the main class at one stage. They have varying handicaps which reflect the modifications made to make these boats suitable for hire.

River Cruiser Class The class consists of nearly 400 inland waterways sailing yachts, designed specifically and exclusively for cruising and racing the tidal system of lakes and rivers of Norfolk and North Suffolk. More than 25 are over 100 years old, and over 150 were built before 1940. The Class is not however confined to a vintage and veteran boat collection. A large proportion of the class was built in the past 20 years, and new class yachts are being launched each year.

Sailfish About 800 Sailfish 18s were built in England between 1970 and 1985. They are a Production Cruiser made from GRP and are easy to trail by road. There has been a regular small fleet of Sailfish entering the Three Rivers Race for a number of years – watch for the distinctive insignia on the sail. Although their primary aim, along with most Production Cruisers, is to complete the course in 24 hours, the Sailfish fleet have often won the Production Cruiser class and have sometimes appeared very high up in the results once handicap is taken into account.

Star Class The Star Class was founded in 1911 in the USA. Since then the rig has been improved and modernised several times, but the hull design remains unchanged. This was the first one-design association, and was nursed through into the successful international organisation today, with over 160 local fleets in 27 countries; it is considered the world’s greatest one-design racing class. With over 8,000 Stars built to date, the Class has been included in the Olympics on many occasions. There remains a small rather isolated pocket of enthusiasm on The Broads.